


Stuck On the Waverider

by WardenRoot



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Everyone Keeps Interrupting, F/F, Light Angst, Post-Break Up, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 08:38:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15945725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WardenRoot/pseuds/WardenRoot
Summary: After a mission gone awry Ava and a few of her agents are forced to spend a few days onboard the Waverider and Sara and Ava are forced to find a way to coexist





	Stuck On the Waverider

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little different than what I usually write but the idea popped into my head and I just had to write it, hope it's enjoyable!

Ava curses as she sees a familiar grey shape flying in the sky. 

“Seriously Gary? I asked you to call for backup, not contact the Legends!”

“I didn’t, I promise! The backup team is on its way, I don’t know what the Legends are doing here.” Ava sighs in response as a portal opens next to her and out comes the promised backup. She turns away from Gary to the agents currently awaiting her command. 

“The anachronism is a fugitive from twenty-two hundred, we don’t know what kind of weapons he has but he is to be apprehended with caution.” She motions for her agents to move and adds, “If we’re fast enough we can be done before the Legends have a chance to make it worse.” She’s no more than uttered the words when she hears a “Too late” behind her. Ava’s face twists for a second before she schools her features and turns around. 

“Captain Lance, I can assure you that the bureau has this under control, you’re not needed here.”

“Gary’s message sounded pretty serious.”

Ava turns to Gary with a glare as Gary’s eyes widen. 

“I swear I didn’t send them anything.”

“Relax, we intercepted the distress call and it sounded like you could use some help.” Sara sighs and looks at Ava. “I didn’t realize it was your mission.”

Ava doesn’t know how to feel, the implication that Sara wouldn’t have come if she thought Ava was there stings but with all that’s happened Ava would have preferred to not have to deal with Sara. 

“Well it is, so you can just skip on back to the Waverider and go mess up time somewhere else.”

“Ava come on, we’re already here, if this fugitive is as dangerous as Gary made him out to be, let us help.”

“The bureau has this under control,” Ava repeats.

Sara’s face is unreadable but Ava thinks she might for once let them deal with it, when a gunshot goes off and Ava suddenly finds herself on the ground with Sara on top of her. Sara’s back on her feet in seconds and Ava follows suit, gun at the ready. They’re being surrounded by mercenaries, no doubt hired by the fugitive they’re chasing. The bureau agents and the Legends all start fighting them and Sara and Ava fight side by side, like they’ve done ever since they met. It hits something in Ava, how well they fight together without even thinking, how well they should fit together, and yet they aren’t meant to be. 

There’s a yell as one of Ava’s agents falls to the ground, clutching her arm, followed by a low screeching sound and a shockwave as the fugitive they’re trying to catch appears in the midst of the battle. He takes aim at another agent with his gun when a suit of red armor enlarges right above him and falls on top of him, forcing the fugitive down on the ground. Ava hears Sara questioningly call Ray’s name as she starts running towards them, but Ava has to take her eyes off of the two people on the ground when she registers a weapon being aimed at Sara in her peripheral vision. Without thinking Ava’s switched her aim and the mercenary falls bleeding to the ground. When Ava turns back to the fugitive Ray has gotten off the ground and Sara’s in the process of tying the fugitive’s hands together. She sees Sara turn to Ray and ask him a question but Ava can’t make out what from the distance between them. She absentmindedly starts pushing buttons on her time courier as she makes her way over to them but stops in her tracks when she gets no reaction from her courier.

“Gary!” she calls and not a moment later he appears beside her. “Can you open a portal back to the bureau?” Gary, dutiful as always, nods his head and starts pushing buttons on his own time courier, but looks up with a frown when nothing happens.

“What’s wrong?” Ava almost jumps at Sara’s voice, having half forgotten she was there with her mind occupied with the lack of portals being opened.

“Our time couriers aren’t working,” Gary offers when Ava doesn’t make a move to speak.

“That’s weird, Ray’s suit isn’t working either, and neither are our comms back to the Waverider.”

“Gary go check if anyone’s courier is working,” Ava orders and Gary runs off, leaving Ava and Sara alone, with Ray a few paces behind Sara, keeping an eye on the fugitive.

“Thank you for the help, Captain Lance,” Ava nods, hands behind her back.

“Anytime,” Sara says, a tentative smile on her lips. Ava nods again and then they just stand there, neither saying a word, until Gary reappears and tells them that none of the couriers appear to be working.

“So we’re stuck,” Ava sighs.

“The Waverider’s parked a ways away, we could always give you a lift back home?”

Ava’s tempted to say no, seeing Sara is bad enough but having to spend time with her in an overcrowded Waverider, no matter how short the time, does not appear appealing, but with no working time couriers her options are quite limited.

“Thank you,” Ava says and the corner of her lips curve up just a bit, no matter what happened between her and Sara she’s grateful for the offer, and as long as she can manage to differentiate between Sara and Captain Lance she thinks the journey shouldn’t be too bad.

The walk to the Waverider is uneventful, Ava keeps a respectable distance to Sara and tries to focus on the paperwork she’ll have to do once she gets back to the bureau. Two of her agents are escorting the fugitive and the fugitive makes no move to escape, at least he doesn’t until they reach the Waverider. The moment they set foot on the timeship the fugitive elbows one of the agents and tears away from them, digging out something from his pocket, a small square object that he activates and there’s a moment of some high pitch sound before it ends as suddenly as it started. 

“You might want to hold on to something,” Gideon says as the Waverider starts shaking and Ava grabs on to the nearest thing she can find, only realizing after that Sara went to grab the same thing and their hands end up touching. Ava forces herself to think of something else, tries to focus on paperwork instead again, until the Waverider stops shaking and Sara pulls her hand away before Ava’s even realized the shaking has stopped. 

Ray and two bureau agents subdue the fugitive again and take him to the brig at Sara’s command. 

“Gideon what the hell was that?” Sara asks. 

“It would appear whatever our guest did messed with my navigation system as well as the comms, I managed to make a jump to the temporal zone before I lost complete control.”

“So we’re stuck?” Ava asks. It’s just her luck to get stuck on a timeship with her ex of all people. 

“Looks like it,” Sara says with a shrug, glancing at Ava before she turns her gaze away again. “Gideon, tell everyone to gather at the bridge.” Sara picks up the object the fugitive had used and starts making her way towards the bridge, Ava and all the time bureau agents following behind. 

It doesn’t take long for the bridge to be filled up with Legends and bureau agents alike and Sara wastes no time in handing out orders.

“It looks like we’re going to be stuck for the night, seeing as we have more people aboard than we have rooms we’re gonna have to bunk up—” Sara hasn’t properly finished her sentence before everyone in the room has grouped up in pairs, leaving Sara and Ava as the only ones without a partner for the night. They share a glance and Sara shrugs, Ava sighs and accepts her fate for the night. “Zari and Ray, try to fix the Waverider and see if you can fix a time courier while you’re at it.” Sara throws the small object she had picked up at the Legends in question. 

“Larry can help them,” Ava says and nods at the agent in question. All three nod and leave the room to start their assigned task.

“Amaya, Mick, and Nate, make sure our guests have food before they sleep,” Sara says, then as an afterthought adds, “Amaya and Nate, make sure Mick doesn’t eat the food meant for the guests.”

After that it’s not long before everyone goes to sleep and Ava reluctantly makes her way to the bedroom she thought she would never step foot in again, what happened last time she was there forever burned into her mind.  
  


“We’re adults, we can share a bed for one night.” It sounds logical when Sara says it, of course they can share a bed, they’re just a director and a captain needing a place to sleep on a timeship suddenly with more people than rooms to sleep in. 

Ava has a plan in her head, she’s going to lay down as close to the edge of the bed, as far away from its second occupant, as she can, and under no circumstance will she think of the nights she used to spend in the very same bed. Her plan has an unsuspected flaw as she lies on her side, answers Sara’s whispered goodnight with one of her own and brings her hand up and under the pillow, landing on a piece of paper. Ava knows what’s on it before she even thinks of pulling it out, a note she herself had left there, right before Sara broke her heart. Her eyes are wet when sleep finally finds her.    
  
When Ava wakes up she’s lying on her back with her head to the side looking right at a still sleeping Sara. They’re not cuddling but Sara’s on her stomach and so close to Ava one of her hands has found its resting place on Ava’s left arm. For a second Ava’s back to happily falling for Sara. For a second it’s just a peaceful morning in Sara’s bed. For a second everything’s perfect. For a second Ava’s right arm starts moving with Sara’s arm as the destination, to run up and down it like it’s done so many times before, but only for a second, and when the second ends and Ava remembers everything her arm, halfway on its journey, falls onto her stomach and she forces herself to look away, turning her head to look at the wall to her right instead. She doesn’t get out of bed, doesn’t remove Sara’s hand on her arm, despite knowing she should, despite knowing she should get as far away from this bed as she can. She closes her eyes and resigns herself to her fate, unwillingly listening to Sara’s breath as she waits for her to wake up.

Sara wakes not long after and Ava finds her head turning back to face her as she hears the change in Sara’s breath and Sara’s hand trails down Ava’s arm to wrap itself around her hand. Sara’s eyes are still closed and Ava holds her breath as Sara lifts Ava’s hand from the bed, and it’s halfway on its way to Sara’s lips when Sara suddenly drops it and sits up, not looking at Ava. Ava turns her head to the roof. 

“Sorry,” Sara whispers, Ava only nods in response and it’s all either of them are willing to do to acknowledge how they woke up. 

Ava feels a change in the bed as Sara gets out of it and she hears drawers opening and closing as she never takes her eyes off the roof. 

“I’ll get Gideon to fabricate you a new suit,” Sara says as she heads for the door. 

“Thank you,” Ava says and spares Sara a glance just as she disappears out the door. 

 

Sara comes back not long after with a full set of fresh clothes and then leaves Ava to her own devices. It doesn’t take Ava long to get dressed but when she’s fully clothed and runs a hand through her hair it occurs to her that she has no hairbrush. She thinks through her options for a moment before she searches for where she knows Sara keeps a brush in her room, quickly finding it. When she’s made herself look as much as the Director of the Time Bureau as she can while stuck on a timeship she goes in search of food, hoping that someone will have good news about when they’ll be able to go back to the bureau. She moves quickly to the galley, more familiar with the route than she should be, than she wants to be, and with her mind occupied by how fast she can get off the Waverider she doesn’t notice someone exiting the galley before she runs into them, reflexively placing a steadying hand on their shoulder as a hand lands on the side of her abdomen. 

“I’m sorry,” she says just as the other person asks, “Are you okay?”, and it’s only then she realizes who she ran into. Sara’s looking at her with worry in her eyes and for a moment Ava just stares, before she draws back, ending all contact with Sara. 

“I’m sorry,” she says with a nod, her face the one of Director Sharpe, and gestures for Sara to walk first before she enters the galley with a sigh. She lets her director facade fall away for a moment, only noticing after that she’s not alone in the room. Gary and Zari are looking at her with curious eyes and Ava imagines they’ve seen what happened between her and Sara. Gary looks like he wants to say something but Zari does something Ava doesn’t quite catch and Ava decides to ignore them in favor of french toast and coffee. 

 

Ava manages to spend most of the early day avoiding Sara, though if you ask her she’s not avoiding anyone, she simply never found herself in the same room as Sara. Her luck runs out when Gideon calls both her and Sara to the makeshift lab on the Waverider. When Ava rounds the corner she can hear voices yelling. She quickens her pace and arrives in the room at the same time as Sara, they share a questioning look before turning their attention on the room’s occupants. Zari, Ray, and Larry are glaring at each other. 

“What the hell is going on here?” Sara asks, looking from one to the other. They all start talking at the same time. 

“He called us inferior to the bureau!” 

“They ruined our chance at getting out of here!” 

“Oh please-“

Ava puts two fingers in her mouth and whistles, quieting the occupants of the room.  

“One at a time,” Ava says, bringing her index finger and thumb up to pinch the bridge of her nose. 

“We got a courier working,” Larry starts before he’s interrupted by Zari. 

“It was nowhere near working!” Sara and Ava turn to glare at her at the same time, before Ava turns her attention back to Larry and gestures for him to go on. 

“Like I said, we got a courier working when one of these two idiots dropped it on the floor and stepped on it.”

“It was a mistake! And the stupid thing wasn’t working, we only got it to make a sound, it wasn’t getting us out of here!  And then this bureau stiff goes on to tell us how inferior we are to the bureau and oh how if only he was back in the bureau lab with competent people.”

Ava turns her attention back to Larry, who shrugs. 

“It’s true,” he says, showing no remorse. 

“Regardless that is not how we treat the people we work with, not to mention the people whose timeship we’re currently occupying. Apologize to Ms. Tomaz and Mr. Palmer.”

“I’m sorry for calling you inferior,” Larry says reluctantly, only sparing the Legends a glance. 

“Now you two apologize for dropping the time courier,” Sara says, looking expectantly at Zari and Ray. The Legends in question lower their heads and mumbles and apology. 

“Good, now are we going to have separate you or can you play nice while figuring a way out of our current predicament?” Ava asks, feeling more like a parent than a director. She spots Sara raising an expecting eyebrow in her peripheral vision. 

“We’ll play nice,” they all mumble, neither looking at the other, and Sara and Ava both sigh, turning to leave the room. 

“I don’t know about you but I could really use a drink right now,” Sara says, giving Ava an exhausted smile. 

“Yeah,” Ava says, returning the smile.

Against her better judgement Ava follows Sara through the Waverider's halls to the captain’s office and accepts a small glass of whiskey. She follows Sara all the way to her desk and when Sara turns around to give her the glass Ava finds herself impossibly close to Sara. She brings her hand up to take the glass and her fingers brush against Sara’s. For a second neither of them move and Ava’s eyes fall to Sara’s lips. Ava almost leans down, but jumps away as she registers conversation as someone enters the bridge, almost dropping her glass in the process. Nate grabs Sara’s attention, unaware of the moment passed between them. Ava thinks Sara might have said goodbye but she’s too busy looking anywhere but at Sara, too busy trying to forget the moment passed, that she doesn’t quite catch it, most definitely doesn’t offer one up of her own. 

 

For a few hours after everything is a blur, Ava has Gary running between herself and the people at work in the Waverider’s lab, giving her updates on their progress, which, to Ava’s dismay, isn’t really happening, but at least there hasn’t been any more fighting inside the room, at least not that caught the attention of Ava or the Waverider’s Captain. When dinner time comes around Ava makes a decision to wait until most everyone has already eaten. Her decision has nothing to do with a certain captain, she just doesn’t feel like eating in an overcrowded room. When she nears the galley she expects to hear conversation, expects a couple of people to have waited as long as her to eat, but she hears nothing but quiet and for a moment she’s thankful that it appears she’ll be eating alone. Then she rounds the corner and spots a single person in the room already, back turned to Ava.

Ava has decided on two rules for the rest of her stay on the Waverider, number one is to not be alone in a room with a Sara, and number two is for as little physical contact between her and Sara as possible. She’s about to turn around and leave, come back for food later, when Sara turns around and gives her a little wave. Ava gives an awkward nod in return, wants to turn away and leave anyway, but refuses to run away after she’s been spotted. Sara walks over to a chair with her food and Ava moves to get her own food. When she’s done she sits down as far away from Sara as she can, never sparing her a glance, trying to pretend Sara’s not just a few feet away, trying not to miss a time she would have gladly been as close to Sara as possible while eating. She can feel Sara’s eyes on her but ignores them, spending her entire time eating with her eyes trained on her food.

“You’re not even gonna look at me?”

“I’m eating, Captain Lance, I tend to look at my food while I do.”

“Ava, come on. We’re stuck here together for the foreseeable future, can we not just try to be friendly?” Sara asks, hope and exasperation in her voice, before she adds, so quietly Ava wouldn’t have caught it if not for the fact they’re the only two people in the room. “I miss it.”

Ava swallows, she can’t deny she misses it, she misses being close to Sara, which is the exact reason she can’t be, the exact reason there has to be boundaries between them. She finally looks up at Sara and she thinks it’s a mistake, because properly looking at Sara does nothing to help keep her boundaries up.

“Of course,” she nods, before looking away again and getting up from her seat, taking her plate with her over to the sink, unknowing in her haste to get done that Sara follows her. When she turns away from the sink she takes a step back at the unexpectedness of Sara being there, making her collide with the counter behind her and bump her head on the cupboard above it.

“What?” Ava asks, a bit more harshly than she intended, when Sara doesn’t say anything. Sara studies her for a second, looks like she’s thinking something over, before she sighs and points behind Ava.

“Just waiting for the sink to be free,” she says and lifts the empty plate in her hand.

“Of course,” Ava says awkwardly, starting to move away from Sara and the sink.

“Hey, wait, is your head okay?” Sara asks, taking a step toward Ava and gently putting a hand on her head when Ava stops. Ava immediately knows stopping was a mistake but Sara’s face is worried and Ava can’t help but try to put her worries to rest. 

“I’m fine,” she says as she lets Sara turn her head around to look at where she hit it. When Sara’s satisfied that no damage was done to Ava she releases Ava’s head and lets one of her hands fall to Ava’s shoulder, and as Ava looks into her eyes she tries to remember why she needed boundaries, tries to remember why she has a rule that strictly states she’s not supposed to touch Sara, but as she continues looking into Sara’s eyes and one of her own hands come up to cover Sara’s Ava just can’t seem to find an answer, can’t seem to find a reason to  _ not _ be close to Sara. Just when Ava’s about to come to the conclusion that such a reason doesn’t exist there’s the sound of a door opening and Ava and Sara jump apart, Ava colliding with the counter for the second time. She looks up to spot Amaya, Zari, and Gary entering the room, none of them looking in their direction, and sighs as she starts back on her path out of the galley, intent on finding something to take her mind off of Sara.

 

She settles on trying to get some paperwork done, borrowing a tablet from Ray. She finds a quiet corner of the Waverider and starts writing a report on their initial mission and how they had ended up stuck with the Legends, but she finds herself unable to focus properly on what she writes. After a few hours of mostly just looking at the tablet screen and Gary popping by a few times to give her updates on what’s happening around the ship Ava decides to take a break from her report, hoping that a walk to clear her head will help to focus more on writing and less on the other occupants of the ship. It’s gotten pretty late and the halls of the Waverider are empty. Ava finds herself walking aimlessly around them, trying to catch the details in the walls and roof that she’s never quite looked at before sp as to not let her mind wander. She doesn’t realize she’s exited the hallways until the roof changes from the long, slim hallway roofs to a bigger one, and when she looks down and finds herself looking out at the time stream she realizes exactly where her legs have carried her. She turns around and sees Sara sitting on the steps to her office, glass of whiskey in her hand. Ava would make some excuse to leave but finds herself too tired to care and instead sits down next to Sara on the stairs, closer to Sara than strictly necessary. Ava wordlessly takes the glass of whiskey from Sara’s hand and takes a sip, Sara curiously watching the action. 

“Hello to you too,” Sara says when Ava hands her back the nearly empty glass. 

“Hey,” Ava says, turning a tired gaze on Sara. 

“You must be tired if you haven’t bothered fixing your bun,” Sara says as she brings her hand up to Ava’s hair, lightly touching Ava’s loose bun. Ava shrugs and before she’s properly registered Sara’s hand it’s almost done undoing Ava’s bun. When Ava’s hair finally falls down completely Sara starts running her hand through it and Ava finds herself leaning into it. She closes her eyes and loses herself in the sensation of Sara’s hand running through her hair, when she opens them she finds herself looking right at Sara. For a moment they’re the only ones who exist. For a moment Ava forgets that she’s not supposed to be this close to Sara. For a moment Ava’s only thought is how badly she wants to kiss her.

They stay uninterrupted in their bubble on the steps of the Captain’s office on the Waverider and as Sara’s hand keeps moving through her hair, Ava’s hand moves to cup Sara’s jaw and then she’s leaning down and locking their lips together. Sara’s hand in her hair stops, then moves away from Ava’s hair only to go back in, this time closer to Ava’s skull and grasping her hair to pull her closer. Ava closes her eyes and her other hand finds Sara’s waist, pulling her even closer, and Sara repositions herself to sit on Ava’s lap, their kiss never breaking. Sara’s other hand joins the first in Ava’s hair as Ava’s hand on Sara’s waist travels down to grab Sara’s ass, and Ava’s other hand travels from Sara’s jaw to the nape of her neck. Sara pulls away slightly, out of breath, and Ava starts kissing her way down Sara’s jaw with Sara’s neck as her destination. Sara lets out a gasp and the hands in Ava’s hair tighten, pulling Ava impossibly closer. Ava kisses her way back up Sara’s neck and jaw, but when she places a kiss on Sara’s cheek she tastes salt and pulls away with a frown. 

“Don’t,” Sara says breathlessly, the hands in Ava’s hair keeping Ava’s face only inches from Sara’s. Ava withdraws her hand from Sara’s ass and brings it up to Sara’s cheek, wiping away tears with her thumb. 

“You’re crying,” Ava says, worry in her voice. Sara only shakes her head, more tears starting to fall. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” 

“I fucked up.”

Ava swallows hard, and in that moment she wants nothing more than to run away. What else could Sara talk about but the moment that had just passed between them? Ava had been stupid to hope, even subconsciously, that Sara would ever want her back. She withdraws her hands from Sara’s cheek and neck, closes her eyes and tries to turn her head but Sara’s hands keep her head firmly in place. 

“I love you.” Ava’s heart stops beating. “I love you,” Sara says again and Ava’s eyes fly open. “I never should have let you go,” Sara says and relinquishes her hold on Ava’s head, cups Ava’s cheek with one hand and lets the other fall to her thigh as she gently presses her forehead against Ava’s. Ava wants nothing more than to say it back, than to believe that Sara truly means it, and she almost does. 

“You’ve been drinking,” Ava says instead, her mind wandering to the taste of whiskey on Sara’s tongue and the glass long since forgotten. Sara lets out a sad laugh. 

“Not that much,” she says, shaking her head. Ava pulls back a little and kisses Sara’s forehead. 

“Let’s get you to bed,” Ava says, and when Sara doesn’t move Ava scoots to the edge of the step as best she can with Sara on top of her and brings her hand down under Sara’s ass, lifting Sara as she stands up. Sara wraps herself around Ava and rests her head on Ava’s shoulder as Ava carries her to her room. When they get there Ava puts Sara down on her bed and moves to Sara’s drawer, throwing nightclothes in Sara’s direction and taking some that she can use. She changes where she stands, not finding it in herself to care that she’s probably not supposed to change in front her ex, especially into her ex’s clothes. When she turns back around to face Sara Sara’s eyes are looking at her curiously, but Sara’s changed into her own nightclothes and is lying on her side of the bed. Ava crawls under the covers on her side and feels Sara move closer. 

“Please,” Sara whispers when she’s close enough to touch and Ava turns slightly to put a hand on Sara’s waist and pull her closer so Sara’s lying halfway on top of her. Sara lets out a sigh as she makes herself comfortable, head resting on Ava’s chest and it doesn’t take long before she’s asleep. 

“I love you too,” Ava whispers into her head before Ava drifts off into her own sleep.

 

“I don’t remember you being so handsy in the morning.” Ava’s eyes fly open. She takes a sleepy second to take account of her current situation; she’s in bed, about where she remembers going to sleep, she has a familiar weight on top of her and blonde hair tickling her chin, her left arm is trapped under said familiar weight and her right arm is-  _ oh _ . 

Ava pulls her hand away immediately as she registers where it’s lying, just a bit lower than Sara’s lower back. She feels her cheeks redden as she places the hand down on Sara’s lower back instead. 

“I didn’t say I was complaining,” Sara sighs against her throat. They lay in silence for a second, taking in the moment, Ava’s hand lightly stroking Sara’s back, before Sara speaks again. “What are the odds we can just stay here forever?”

Ava wants nothing more than to stay in the moment forever, a sleepy Sara on top of her and quiet around them, no one to interrupt and no broken hearts, just the two of them peacefully existing in the same space. She sighs as she thinks of all the reasons they can’t. “Between my agents currently on the ship, the Legends, and time on the brink of being destroyed, I’d say the odds are pretty nonexistent.”

Sara sighs and lifts herself up a little, so she can look at Ava’s face, feeling rushing back in Ava’s left arm as she does so. “How about ten more minutes?”

Ava’s no more than opened her mouth to respond when a loud crash sounds through the ship. Ava’s wouldbe reply turns into a groan as her hand stops it’s movements on Sara’s back. 

“Gideon?” Sara asks, annoyance taking over the peaceful calm that had been on her face just a moment ago. There is no answer from the AI and worry joins annoyance on Sara’s face. “Better go make sure the kids don’t blow up the ship,” she says with a shake of her head, and before she gets up she takes a second to lean down and press a kiss to the corner of Ava’s mouth. Sara freezes halfway on her journey back up, as if realizing what she had done, before she jumps off of Ava as fast as she can and Ava’s heart falls, the serene morning turned anything but. Her thoughts fly to the night before and she chastises herself for thinking it might have changed anything between them, watches as Sara gets dressed fast as she can, glancing briefly at Ava, a mixture of sadness, longing, and regret in her eyes, before she goes to check on what had happened. 

Ava’s on her way to search for Sara and whatever had happened before they got up when Gary finds her and tells her it’s already been dealt with. Instead of continuing to look Ava changes her course for the galley, assuming that Sara will tell her what happened if it was important. She’s in the process of getting coffee when Sara enters the room. Ava throws her a quick “hi” and notes the tired look on Sara’s face as she returns the greeting. They’re the only ones in the room and Ava would look for an excuse to leave but after the night before and this morning Ava finds she feels more at ease around Sara, a feeling she’s been missing. Sara passes her to get to the cupboard with cups in them and Ava watches her struggle trying to reach the top shelf.

“Need a hand?” Ava asks, amused smile at her lips.

“You agents are using up all the cups,” Sara grumbles as she continues trying to get a cup that’s just out of reach.

“Here,” Ava says as she walks up behind Sara. She doesn’t wait for Sara to move, which she thinks is a mistake, as there really isn’t a lot of room between Sara and the table behind her and she’s pressed almost flush against Sara’s back as she puts a steadying hand on Sara’s waist and lifts the other hand up above Sara to take the cup the other woman was struggling to get.

“Thanks,” Sara says as she does her best to turn around with what little space she has between the counter and Ava.

“You’re welcome,” Ava smiles as she hands Sara the cup, their fingers brushing at the action.

Ava should move away, should go back to her coffee and put some distance between herself and Sara, she definitely should not be standing almost flush to her, and yet neither of them make a move to move. Sara puts the cup down on the counter to her side, only briefly looking at it to see the cup hit the counter and not the floor, before she turns her gaze back to Ava and Ava finds herself getting lost in her eyes.

“We should talk,” Sara says and Ava’s eyes fall to her lips as they move.

“We should,” Ava nods, and she knows they should, knows there is something she has to talk to Sara about, but she can’t for the life of her remember about what.

“Right,” Sara nods and Ava gets the feeling Sara’s in the same position as herself. 

Ava thinks about talking, but then she thinks about what other, better things they could be doing with their mouths, standing so close, and she’s only just thought about it when she finds herself closing the distance between them, pressing her lips against Sara’s. Sara responds in kind as she pushes back against Ava and she puts one hand on Ava’s back and the other on her ass. Ava moans and Sara takes the opportunity to push her tongue into Ava’s mouth. Ava puts her hands on the back of Sara’s thighs and lifts as Sara pushes off the ground, letting her go when Sara’s sitting on the counter, with Ava standing between her thighs. Sara kisses her way down to Ava’s neck and moves Ava’s collar with her nose, finding a spot underneath she deems good and gently nibbles on it, before kissing it and then sucking on it. Ava lets out another moan and presses herself impossibly closer to Sara. There’s a sound in the background that the back of Ava’s mind tells her to pay attention to but it’s far away and Ava’s mind is far too occupied with Sara. It’s only when the sound is loud enough that it’s just outside the galley door that something in Ava tells her to pull away and by some miracle she manages to take a stumbling step backwards, Sara’s lips trying to follow but as Ava takes another step back the distance is too great to follow from Sara’s current position. 

The door opens as Ava’s in the process of fixing her shirt collar, her back to the door. She recognizes Nate singing before there’s a stop to the sound as Nate presumably takes them in. Ava makes a beeline for her forgotten coffee as Sara jumps off the counter and mumbles something about checking on Zari and Ray in the lab. 

Ava decides to try to finish the paperwork she started the day before. She finds the corner she had used before but finds Mick and a few of her agents using the spot to play poker and turns around the moment she spots them, fated to look for another spot to do her paperwork. She comes across the bridge and finds it empty. She spends a second thinking over how appropriate it would be for her to use Sara’s office with everything going on between them but decides she has no other choice as everywhere else on the ship seems to be currently occupied. She pulls up what she started yesterday but finds her mind occupied by thoughts of Sara instead of the details of the mission. She almost laughs when the woman in question shows up in the doorway. Sara hesitates when she spots Ava and Ava suddenly feels guilty for using her office without asking. 

“I’m sorry, I would have asked but there was nowhere else on the ship to be where I could actually hear my own thoughts,” Ava starts, already in the process of saving what little work she had done and getting up from her chair. 

“Don’t worry about it, you’re welcome to stay,” Sara says, gesturing for Ava to sit back down. “Can we talk?” Sara asks as she takes a hesitant step towards the desk where Ava’s sitting. 

“Of course, we should talk,” Ava says and motions for Sara to start. Sara nods and makes her way fully over to her desk, jumping a little to sit on top of it, only inches from Ava’s chair. Ava swallows and focuses on keeping her hands that are currently on the desk from moving closer to Sara. 

“So,” Sara starts and takes a breath. She puts a hand behind her on the desk but in the motion she hits Ava’s coffee cup, spilling its contents on Ava’s abdomen.

“Fuck, sorry,” Sara says and scoots closer to Ava on the desk, opening a drawer and pulling out some napkins.

“It’s okay, the coffee was barely lukewarm at this point,” Ava says as she unbuttons the bottom buttons of her shirt so as to not have the wet material cling to her skin. She takes the napkins from Sara’s hand and starts wiping away coffee from her stomach and tries to make her shirt a little less wet. 

“Good,” Sara says, her tone one of distraction.

“So, talking,” Ava says and looks up from her ruined shirt to look at Sara.

“Right,” Sara says with the same distracted tone, her eyes fixed on Ava’s abs.

Ava suddenly feels self conscious under Sara’s gaze and her hands start moving of their own accord, she makes a move to put them on the desk to stop herself from starting to fidget but she’s still looking at Sara and not the desk and one of her hands ends up on Sara’s thigh. Sara swallows and bites her lip and Ava opens her mouth to say something, anything, when Sara reaches a hand out for Ava’s neck and leans down from the desk to kiss her. She takes Ava’s bottom lip between her teeth and gently bites it before sucking on it and then releasing it, spending a split second away from Ava’s lips before she leans back in.

Somewhere in Ava’s mind it keeps repeating that they need to talk and this is definitely not talking, but with Sara’s lips against hers that voice is not one Ava can force herself to listen to and the other voice, the one telling her to lose herself in Sara, wins out as Ava uses her legs to slightly turn the chair she’s sitting in and wraps her arms around Sara, pulling her down on top of her. Sara willingly obliges and the moment she’s sitting on top of Ava one of her hands go wandering down to Ava’s unclothed stomach. Her hand travels up a little to where Ava’s shirt is still buttoned and Sara’s fingers immediately starts work on undoing them, but she only manages to undo two buttons before her fingers freeze.

“Director Sharpe?” Ava holds back a groan at the interruption, considering for a moment just sending the intruder away and have Gideon lock the doors to the bridge, but as Sara pulls back just a little a small sense of clarity returns to Ava’s mind and she sighs as she lets Sara go.

“What is it Gary?” she asks, turning her gaze to the agent standing in the entrance to the office, his face half shock, half excitement. “Not a word,” she adds, she’s in no shape to deal with whatever Gary has to say about it when she hasn’t even figured out whatever’s going on between her and Sara yet.

“Uh, I just came from the lab and they’re not done yet but they think they’re very close to getting Gideon back the control of her navigation system,” Gary says with a grin, looking between Sara and Ava.

“Oh,” Ava says, her voice not as relieved as it should be. She should be ecstatic about finally getting off the ship but suddenly the thought of sleeping in her own bed, not having to wait her turn to eat, and having access to a bathroom not shared with a bunch of other people isn’t as inviting as it should be. “Keep me informed of any additional progress they make,” Ava says and looks down at her ruined shirt. “I’m going to go get a new shirt.”

  
  


Ava’s on her way to she’s not quite sure where after getting Gideon to make her a new shirt when she literally runs into Sara. Sara lets out a curse but when she looks up and sees it’s Ava she wordlessly takes Ava’s hand and drags her with her.

“Sara, wha-” Ava starts but stops when Sara opens a door and pushes Ava through it, quickly following Ava in and closing the door. When Ava tries to open her mouth to ask again she’s met with Sara’s hand covering her mouth, Sara’s other hand coming up in front of her own mouth to signal for Ava to be quiet. Ava frowns but does as told and after about a minute she can hear footsteps outside the door. Once they disappear Sara sighs and removes her hand from Ava’s mouth.

“Sorry about that,” she says but offers up no explanation for her actions.

Ava doesn’t recognize the room they’re in but what she does know is that while it’s not the most spacious room on the Waverider it’s big enough that Sara doesn’t need to be standing just a few inches away from Ava and yet Sara has yet to move after whoever she’s hiding from passed the door. 

“You found a new shirt!” Sara says as her eyes drop Ava’s stomach.

“Yeah, Gideon made me a new one,” Ava says, frown still on her face. Sara gives a nod in reply.

“I preferred it when it was unbuttoned,” Sara says, half to herself, eyes still on Ava’s stomach and Ava finds herself blushing.

Sara bites her lip and gently runs a hand down Ava’s stomach, right next to the shirt’s buttons, and Ava draws in a breath at the action. Not a moment later Sara has a hand in Ava’s hair and leans up to kiss her. Ava’s taken aback by the action but soon finds herself wrapping her arms around Sara to pull her closer and deepening the kiss. When Sara pulls back just a little so she can lower her mouth to kiss Ava’s neck the voice at the back of Ava’s head gets a little bit louder and just manages to break through the haze that is Sara.

“Wait, wait,” Ava says, breathless, and lightly pushes on Sara’s shoulder. Sara takes a step back but her gaze is still on Ava’s neck, hunger in her eyes. “We need to talk, actually talk.”

“I think we’re talking just fine,” Sara says and starts pulling Ava closer again and Ava almost, almost lets her, but then the voice makes its presence known again and Ava sighs as she pulls back, placing one hand on Sara’s shoulder to keep her at arm’s length and takes Sara’s hand with her other. Sara sighs, then nods. “Let’s talk.”

“Right,” Ava says and looks down. She starts stroking Sara’s hand with her thumb and intently watches the action as she thinks of what to say. “Did you mean what you said last night?”

Sara’s quiet for a few seconds and Ava almost regrets asking. Ava looks up when Sara puts a hand under her chin and urges her to look up and the look that greets her takes her breath away, the hunger from before is nowhere to be found on Sara’s face, replaced by an open, vulnerable expression.

“Yes. Every word.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m terrified to lose you, even more terrified that I’m going to hurt you and it made me make a mistake that I haven’t stopped regretting since.” Sara looks down at their joined hands and brings them up to her face, softly kissing the back of Ava’s hand. “It means that I love you.”

Ava swallows hard and moves the hand resting on Sara’s shoulder to cup Sara’s cheek. “I love you too,” she whispers and the smile Sara gives her at the words makes her heart flutter. She can’t help herself and leans forward to press a gentle kiss to Sara’s lips, smiling when she pulls away.

“So, dinner whenever we get out of this mess?” Sara asks and gestures around them with the hand still holding Ava’s.

“It’s a date,” Ava smiles and leans back in for another, longer kiss. The kiss quickly becomes heated as Sara pushes Ava back into a wall and lets go of Ava’s hand in favor of finding Ava’s shirt, starting to unbutton it from the bottom. She only manages to unbutton a couple of buttons before Ava pulls away again.

“We should probably wait with,” Ava starts out of breath and gestures between them.

“Right, of course,” Sara says with a nod, never taking her eyes off Ava. She bites her lip and Ava intently watches the action. Sara’s hand runs up to the next button of Ava’s shirt and Ava gasps as Sara’s hand brushes her skin. “Or, we could not do that,” Sara says, already leaning towards Ava.

“Yeah,” Ava agrees before she leans back down to meet Sara.

Sara’s made it about halfway up Ava’s shirt when Gideon’s voice sounds in the room.

“Captain Lance, Dr. Heywood is looking for you, if you do not move I estimate he will find you in about three minutes.”

“Come on,” Ava groans, reluctantly pulling away from Sara.

Sara grabs Ava’s hand and starts pulling her towards the door, a mischievous look in her eyes. “Then I guess we better move,” she says when they reach the door. “I know a much more comfortable place to continue this anyway.” Ava giggles and happily lets Sara pull her along, both careful to not run into anyone on their way.

“We should probably get back up soon,” Ava says before pressing a kiss to the back of Sara’s hand. Ava’s lying on her side with Sara on her back next to her, Ava’s holding one of Sara’s hands while Sara’s other hand runs up and down Ava’s arm. 

“Do you really want that?” Sara groans. No, Ava doesn’t want to get up, terrified that any interruption of the moment will put them right back to where they were before getting stuck together. But they have responsibilities and Ava doesn’t trust anyone on the ship not to blow it up if left unsupervised for long enough. 

“No,” Ava sighs. She lets go of Sara’s hand and lets her own fall down on Sara’s stomach, using it to steady herself as she leans down to kiss her. 

“Is this a bad time to tell you I’ve regained control of comms and navigation,” Gideon’s voice sounds, more a statement than a question. 

Sara sits up and jumps out of bed the moment Gideon’s uttered the words. “Thank god!” she says and Ava can’t help the anxious feeling that takes over her stomach at Sara’s relieved tone. Somewhere the rational part of her brain tries to tell her Sara’s relieved to not be stuck on the timeship with a lot more people than she bargained for but Ava can’t help but worry about everything that’s happened the past couple of days falling apart at the prospect of freedom. 

“You have great timing Gideon,” Sara smirks as she turns to wink at Ava, already halfway through putting her clothes back on. 

“Actually I regained control a few hours ago, I thought it’d be rude to interrupt.” Ava feels her cheeks redden as she reluctantly gets out of bed and locates her own clothes. 

The halls are empty as they make their way to the bridge, the rest of the ship already having made their way there at Sara’s request through Gideon. They walk in companionable silence, with stolen looks at the other and the occasional kiss before they finally make their way to the bridge and the stolen looks and smiles fall away to make way for Captain Lance and Director Sharpe. Sara’s just given the order for everyone to find a makeshift seat when Gary gasps and takes a step forward. 

“Captain Lance, you’re hurt!” he says and Ava turns with a frown, certain the body she just spent hours getting reacquainted with was quite unharmed. Gary’s staring at a spot on Sara’s neck and Ava’s cheeks slightly redden. 

“Oh this is nothing,” Sara says, then smirks. “You should see the other guy.” Ava imagines if she’d been drinking at that moment she would have choked on it, she’s never been happier for her shirt’s high collar. 

Sara flies them just outside Star City and Ava immediately calls the bureau and has someone portal over with a working time courier and as they wait she sends a couple of agents to retrieve the fugitive from the brig. The bridge is just about empty, Ava following the last of her agents to the portal back to the bureau, when Ava feels a tap on her arm. She turns around to face Sara. 

“Can we talk for a second, Director Sharpe?” Sara asks, looking over Ava’s shoulder into the time bureau. 

“Of course,” Ava says and lets the portal close, working courier on her wrist, and follows Sara into her office. Ava stops halfway in and watches Sara walk over the small table housing all her whiskey, tracing the outline of it. 

“What did you want to talk about?” 

“Oh, something very important,” Sara says, turning to Ava with a serious expression. She takes one last scan of the room around them before Ava raises an eyebrow and Sara takes a couple of steps to close the distance between them. 

“So very important,” she says, her serious tone turned distracted as her gaze falls from Ava’s eyes to her lips and Ava just has time to roll her eyes before Sara leans up on her toes and drags Ava’s head down the rest of the distance. It’s a soft, gentle kiss but it lasts for a long moment before Sara pulls back and runs her hand down Ava’s arm to take her hand, running her thumb across the back of it. 

For a second Sara looks hesitant, almost vulnerable, as if she expects her next action to be met with rejection. 

“I did want to ask you something,” Sara says, her eyes on their joined hands. 

“What?” Ava asks and brings her other hand up to cup Sara’s cheek, running her thumb across it. 

“Dinner tomorrow?” Sara turns her gaze back on Ava and her eyes are hopeful. Ava’s heart breaks at the thought Sara might think Ava would say anything other than yes, would _want_ to say anything other than yes, but the way Sara asks, all soft and hopeful, also does everything to set Ava’s anxiety at ease and suddenly the prospect of leaving the bubble they’ve existed in for the past couple of days doesn’t seem all that bad. 

“Dinner tomorrow,” Ava confirms with a soft smile and she gets the most beautiful smile in return and she finds herself helpless to do anything but lean down and press one more kiss to Sara’s lips. One kiss turns into many and she has to tear herself away from Sara, forces herself to try and think of all her responsibilities back at the bureau before she finally opens up a portal that will lead her off of the Waverider. 

“I’ll be seeing you Ms. Lance,” she says, the corners of her mouth curving up as she takes a step through the portal. 

“Oh you can count on it Ms. Sharpe,” Sara’s voice sounds right before the portal closes behind Ava’s back. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hmu on tumblr [@wardenroot ](http://wardenroot.tumblr.com)


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